Premium
The turnover of Romanian drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies was 66.6 billion lei in 2020, up 2.6 percent from 2019 and over 100 percent higher compared to 2010, shows a survey by KeysFin - one of the most important providers of business information solutions in Romania - based on Finance Ministry figures.
Experts expect the pharmaceutical industry to continue to grow this year towards 70 billion lei, in the context of inflationary pressure as well as of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions which have temporarily affected the production of medicines in 2020, agerpres.ro confirms.
"According to the KeysFin survey on the development of the pharma market, the local pharmaceutical industry hit an all-time high in 2020. Paradoxically, the fight against COVID-19 has contributed to the health of the economy due to the contribution to the state budget but also to the ecosystem supported by these companies. This sector has further potential for development, given that the pandemic is not yet over and Romanians have understood the need for prevention, not just treatment. For 2021 we estimate an increase in the subcategory of supplements, with this upward trend keeping steady in the near future," said Roxana Popescu, KeysFin managing director.
In 2020, the net result of pharma companies (net profit minus net loss) increased by almost 19 percent compared to the previous year and by over 346 percent compared to 2010, thus reaching a historic high of 3.2 billion lei.
At the opposite end, however, KeysFin experts point to the worrisome development of outstanding payments in 2020, which almost doubled to 2.6 billion lei; outstanding invoices of pharma companies to suppliers account for almost 50 percent of the amount.
Terapia further tops the local production of pharmaceuticals, with a turnover of 791 million lei in 2020 and a net result of almost 192 million lei, followed by Zentiva (with a turnover of 558 million lei and a net result of approximately 66 million lei) and Sandoz (turnover of 427 million lei and a net result of 10-plus million lei).
Next in the ranking are drug maker Antibiotice, the only top 5 company to see an annual decrease of -12.7 percent respectively (with a turnover of 341 million lei and a net result of 26 million lei) and Biofarm, which registered the highest annual advance in the top 5 (+10.8 percent) (turnover of 216 million lei and net result of 54 million lei).
In the pharmacy chains' ranking by the 2020 turnover, Sensiblu is No. 1 with a turnover of approximately 2 billion lei and an advance of 6 percent from the previous year, followed by Dona with a turnover of approximately 1 billion lei, but also the largest annual decrease in the top 5 (-2.9 percent) and Help Net - turnover of 979 million lei and an annual growth of 21.6 percent. The next ranked are Farmacia Tei with 448 million lei (the steepest annual advance in the top 5, of 26.8 percent) and Catena Hygeia S.R.L. - with 704 million lei and an annual drop of -2.6 percent.
However, considering group consolidated data, CATENA, which runs more than 100 separate entities, remains the market leader.
According to the Public Finance Ministry, 2020 financial data was available for 161 manufacturers of medicines and pharmaceuticals, as well as for over 5,800 wholesalers and retailers of pharmaceutical products.
